How many years must we spend in Iraq even though we know it's a mistake?

[kentuck]

We can't cut and run, right? We have to "stay the course" right? What is the rationale for staying in a place that was a mistake to go into in the first place? Why do we have to stay? Because it would be a mess if we leave? It's going to be a mess if we stay. How do we know it will be a bigger mess if we leave than if we stay?

How many more lives is it worth to stay in a place we should never have been in in the first place? Which is the bigger mistake? Leaving a country to let it solve its own problems or to stay and create problems that we will rationalize as being much smaller and of a less magnitude than if we had left?

[maggrwaggr]

1. there's only one way out: admit it was a mistake, pay the bill, and leave

that's the only way.

[PaDUer]

13. I agree with you!

OUT of there fast!

[bpilgrim]

2. OUTSOURCE IRAQ

to the IRAQIS - they work for freedom :bounce:

peace

[meow mix]

3. many many years of Slaughter left to enjoy..

half of dems seem to want to stay and continue slaughtering.
and all the pugs.

i think ill just go live in a cave or something....

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. About as long as we've been in Germany and Japan.

59 years and counting

[paulk]

5. we can talk about this until we're blue in the face

and it won't change a thing. Even if he loses, Bush has until Jan. 20 to fuck things up - and I'll bet money he's not about to pull out before then.

This subject has become nothing more than something people on this board can bash each other over the head with.

[brokensymmetry]

6. Your choice -

A generation - on the order of 20 years or so - while we make deep, fundamental changes to the culture and values. We'll have thousands of dead, and tens of thousands badly injured. We'll have spent several trillion (with a t) over that time.

Or, cut and run. We'll have squandered less than a thousand US lives, fewer than 20,000 badly injured, and only a few hundred billion.

[LZ1234]

7. I agree with you.

We've already lost all credibility and respect. It's not like we have anything to lose by staying. The Iraqis don't want us there anyway. I'm wondering if they would they do better without us there. I read that letter from an Iraqi mother who gave me the impression that perhaps they would do better without us.

[LZ1234]

8. I meant "anything to lose by leaving"

[madrchsod]

9. till we suck every drop

of oil from the country. george bush has paid for it with the blood of our loved ones. we will never leave

[charlie]

10. Long enough

to assuage the angst the teeming masses might feel over not having done enough to "deliver freedom" to the Iraqis. I imagine it'll be awhile. Sadly. It took over a generation to convince enough of the large contingent of Vietnam bitter-enders that glory wasn't thwarted by a failure of will and America-hating radicals.

[NuttyFluffers]

11. ETERNITY

by Calvin Klein



(there's your answer)

[Wonk]

12. The pottery barn rule and Iraq: You break it, you bought it.

I opposed the war before it started. Now I'm just sad that things are unfolding much like I thought they might. To make things right over there could well take decades, and billions upon billions of dollars. I don't see pulling out now as a viable option, though I wish it were.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x5216

[ngGale]

14. I've changed my mind and agree...

we need to get the hell out. Even for their safety by gosh. The car bombs are blowing up women and children. Little Kindergarden kids.

[opihimoimoi]

15. We will be there about 48 years till the last rop of oil is squeezed out.

By then, we will have found a way to run cars on sand.